Being on the road and trying to keep up a schedule of recording a semi daily podcast with above average sound quality was proving a challenge, until the iRig Mic Cast landed on the doormat. An ultra compact, lightweight and an incredibly affordable microphone for your travel bag, the Mic Cast is ideally suited to the challenge.

Gaz is off walk-about so Karl Madden from the Mac and Forth podcast joins Guy to keep the UK perspective going. Guy is supposed to keep Karl from Ranting, but nobody seems to be able to stop Guy from doing the same as they discuss the typical coverage for Apple news in the world today.

Have you ever had a Mac App stop responding? Usually this leads to the spinning “beach ball.” If this has happened to you, there is a quick and easy way to fix it. It is called “Force Quit.”

To “Force Quit” an app go to the Menu in the top left of your screen with the Apple logo. Click the Menu and choose “Force Quit.” This will present a window with all of the open applications on your Mac. Normally, if one is stuck or not responding you will see “Not responding” next to the name. Click this app’s name or any other one that you are having issues with and then click the “Force Quit” button. This should force the application to it, as the name implies.

You can then reopen it and try again.

Bonus tip: Hold the “Shift” key while clicking the Apple menu and you will see the name of the app you are in after “Force Quit.” Instead of choosing from the list you can just do everything from one step.

Instead of waiting for the “beach ball” to stop spinning the next an app goes crazy on your you can force it to quit. Basic.

Replacing Microsoft Publisher for Mac isn’t easy. You could download something expensive like InDesign, but it’s not nearly as straightforward to use. We suggest you try a web app called Lucidpress instead. It’s intuitive, Mac-friendly, and there’s even a free option.

Lucidpress employs drag-and-drop technology, which makes it simple to design posters, business cards, brochures, and flyers. Like Publisher, Lucidpress has a large library of templates that can quickly be customized to create original content. There are even templates for creating online collateral like Facebook cover photos or blog header images.

This will open a window for recording your movie and activate your computer’s camera.

In that screen is a control bar with a red record button. Next to that button is a little arrow with a drop down menu. In that menu will be a lot of items, including your connected iOS device. Choose the iOS device and the display in the recording window will go from your camera to your iOS screen!

Screenshot of my iPhone via my iMac and Quicktime

All you have to do now is click record and the application will record whatever you want to do from your iOS device. This is also a great way to show an iOS device through your Mac without recording.

The GMen answer every single question you might have about Apple Music. Or at least every question you might think they could answer, so your confusion may still remain after listening. No matter, a fun packed show that you’ll be sorry it’s over, or maybe begun, but only you as a listener can answer THAT question.

Road warriors are always looking for that trick, tip, or gadget to make their travels easier. The PlugBug is that new thing that makes life less complicated and lessen their load. At first glance it looks like an oversized power adapter for an iPad painted red.

Gaz and Guy are back in studio (on two different continents but in studio) and have a lot to talk about. Like car races, past tech conferences, using binoculars to take pictures with phones, and some Apple tech stuff which works out well since that’s what they’re supposed to talk about anyway. With phones now so ingrained in our lives and performing multifunctional roles, does it matter much when Apple releases new music players? That’s the main topic for the GMen this week.

If you ever wanted to have a link to a website without bookmarking it in Safari, here’s a way to add it to your Dock. From the desired webpage go to the website field at the top of Safari. A “+” will appear to the left of the website. Click and drag that “+” to your Dock.

Make sure you are on the far left side of the Dock.

Drop it onto your Dock and a globe icon will appear. Now whenever you click that icon Safari will open and go to that page.

How to describe the sound of the Audioquest Nighthawk? The term liquid comes to mind, as a smoothness that’s like water on a plate. As I’ve been listening the past few days I thought “This is like listening to average solid-state amps for years, and then hearing a highly-regarded tube amp for the first time.” That’s an imperfect analogy, since I’m dealing with the complexities of sound, and audiophile sound at that.

There are aspects of audiophile sound that fall into a hierarchy of sorts – frequency response, balance, signature – those three terms describe the thing that’s most obvious to beginners and advanced users alike. There are theories and there are preferences. My personal take says that the Nighthawk is both warmer and softer (less harsh) than the classic hi-fi flagships from Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic, to name some examples. But that’s also my impression of good tube sound, so the question then is “How much does the Nighthawk actually differ from those ‘flagship’ headphones?”

Gaz is out this episode watching cars go really fast so Guy brings in Gary “Dr. Dream” Apter, a long time listener to the MyMac Podcast and many others. They talk a bit more about the events in Chicago, what they did in tech recently, and then a bit about whether Apple seems to be ignoring Pro users and why. Also why does iTunes and iOS devices not agree on how much storage is available. Gary thinks it’s a potentially serious problem and Guy seems confused. Well no change there.

Guy’s App Pick: Zombieville USA by Mika Mobile. .99 cents in the iOS app store. Side scroller with varied weapons and characters. You never really win, it’s pretty much see how far you can get before being chomped for the last time.Gaz’s App Pick: Cars are racing! Don’t bother me about app picks!Gary’s App Pick: GasBuddy app for iOS Offers reports on fuel prices. Sort by local or some location you might be traveling to. I used this on my trip to Mac Stock. A quick look and I could see the going rates wherever I was. I’ve also set my ‘favorites’ for when I’m home.

Have you ever had the need to put a group of documents into one folder? One way to do this is to make a folder and drag and drop each document into that folder. However, there is a faster and easier way to accomplish this task.

Start by clicking each document you want in the folder by holding the Command key while you click the icons. When all of the icons are selected control-click one of the items. A menu will appear. In the menu choose “New Folder with Selection….”

All of the items will instantly go into a new folder. All you have to do is type a name for the folder.

This happy little Bluetooth device is, as far as I can tell, magic. It does not have secure pairing, so there is no need for entering numbers as with a lot of headsets. Right out of the box there is a stereo audio cable with standard red/white RCA ends on one side and a 3.5mm plug on the other.

For some reason I was hoping HDMI but that stems from judging a book by its cover as the box has a picture of a TV in the background on the front of the box. Also included is a standard, generic, USB-to-micro-USB cable, and the power adapter to plug the USB into. Also on the reverse of the unit is a digital optical port.

It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ’n’ rollIf you think it’s easy doin’ one night stands Try playin’ in a rock roll band It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ’n’ roll

– AC/DC – “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ’N’ Roll)”

The recent kerfuffle between Taylor Swift and Apple regarding payments for streaming tracks during the company’s new Music service trial left me thinking about modern day recording artists. Can anyone make it big today or do they still have to rely on the old methods to do it?